Advice on Video card to upgrade to

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Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life.counterstrike (More info?)

Guys,

My machine is now nearing 4 years old.

The only mod I have needed to do to it has been to increase it's RAM.

Now I am struggling to run most of the new games hitting the market -
my graphics card just can;t keep up. It an Nvidia Riva TNT2 Model 64.

I have to say it has been a superb card over the years and rarely
reject any game.

Now I feel I need to upgrade.

So, any recommendation? What are you guys using?

My current machine spec is 1Gig AMD, 512MB ram, Win XP. (I'm also
using onboard sound which may sound naff, but it's never played up
although maybe it's time to get a real sound card!)

Thanks,

Mike


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life.counterstrike (More info?)

"Mike Seddon" <mike.sd@btinternt.com> wrote in message
news:4183e409.4093926@news.btinternet.com...
> Guys,
>
> My machine is now nearing 4 years old.
> My current machine spec is 1Gig AMD, 512MB ram, Win XP. (I'm also
> using onboard sound which may sound naff, but it's never played up
> although maybe it's time to get a real sound card!)
>

I think you could do with a new CPU too, If you want a high end card
such as Geforce 6 series or Radeon X series then that CPU will hold it
back.

I think the best bet for that system would be a Radeon, but which one,
hmm..... If you want a good card for a fair price then a 9600XT would
be a good choice but if you want as much power as you can get so you
don't have to upgrade again for a while then a 9800 pro or XT.

With that CPU there really isn't much point in going for a geforce 6
series or radeon X series as it would be too limited by the CPU to be
worth the money and if you got one now with the idea of upgrading the
CPU later then that would limit you to getting an expensive AGP GFX
card now and then needing a new AGP motherboard for your new CPU in
the future which may be hard to find as most boards will be PCI
Express.

Just for comparison my system is:

Alienware Area 51
3.2GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition @ 3.8Ghz (Water Cooled)
Asus P4C800E Deluxe Motherboard
Gainward Golden Sample Geforce 6800 Ultra (Water Cooled)
2GB Corsair PC3200 DDR RAM
2 x 200GB SATA Hard Drives (RAID 0)
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 (Harman/Kardon 5.1 Speakers)
19" NEC/Mitsubishi 1980SX TFT
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life.counterstrike (More info?)

Mike, whats your budget? - People will be able to help you just fine once
they know it!

S.


"Mike Seddon" <mike.sd@btinternt.com> wrote in message
news:4183e409.4093926@news.btinternet.com...
> Guys,
>
> My machine is now nearing 4 years old.
>
> The only mod I have needed to do to it has been to increase it's RAM.
>
> Now I am struggling to run most of the new games hitting the market -
> my graphics card just can;t keep up. It an Nvidia Riva TNT2 Model 64.
>
> I have to say it has been a superb card over the years and rarely
> reject any game.
>
> Now I feel I need to upgrade.
>
> So, any recommendation? What are you guys using?
>
> My current machine spec is 1Gig AMD, 512MB ram, Win XP. (I'm also
> using onboard sound which may sound naff, but it's never played up
> although maybe it's time to get a real sound card!)
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mike
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Do you have problems with formatting your Word documents?
> Try HealthChecK.
> Full software on 25 day free trial and the chance to win your own free
> copy.
> http://www.kutchka.com/products/producthealthcheck.asp
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life.counterstrike (More info?)

I like Toys and Cake <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:1099172806.14182.0@spandrell.news.uk.clara.net...
>
> "Mike Seddon" <mike.sd@btinternt.com> wrote in message
> news:4183e409.4093926@news.btinternet.com...
> > Guys,
> >
> > My machine is now nearing 4 years old.
> > My current machine spec is 1Gig AMD, 512MB ram, Win XP. (I'm also
> > using onboard sound which may sound naff, but it's never played up
> > although maybe it's time to get a real sound card!)
> >
>
> I think you could do with a new CPU too, If you want a high end card
> such as Geforce 6 series or Radeon X series then that CPU will hold it
> back.
>
> I think the best bet for that system would be a Radeon, but which one,
> hmm..... If you want a good card for a fair price then a 9600XT would
> be a good choice but if you want as much power as you can get so you
> don't have to upgrade again for a while then a 9800 pro or XT.
>
> With that CPU there really isn't much point in going for a geforce 6
> series or radeon X series as it would be too limited by the CPU to be
> worth the money and if you got one now with the idea of upgrading the
> CPU later then that would limit you to getting an expensive AGP GFX
> card now and then needing a new AGP motherboard for your new CPU in
> the future which may be hard to find as most boards will be PCI
> Express.
>
> Just for comparison my system is:
>
> Alienware Area 51
> 3.2GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition @ 3.8Ghz (Water Cooled)
> Asus P4C800E Deluxe Motherboard
> Gainward Golden Sample Geforce 6800 Ultra (Water Cooled)
> 2GB Corsair PC3200 DDR RAM
> 2 x 200GB SATA Hard Drives (RAID 0)
> Sound Blaster Audigy 2 (Harman/Kardon 5.1 Speakers)
> 19" NEC/Mitsubishi 1980SX TFT
>
>

Good Advice!
Nice Spec!

Uzi
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life.counterstrike (More info?)

Steve wrote:
> Mike, whats your budget? - People will be able to help you just fine once
> they know it!
>
> S.
>

yeah. I'd like to hear it too.

If you're going to buy machine where money and power is balanced then I
suggest you to buy newer prosessor and newer 3d accelerator.

However if you have more money for use. Then get your self a cheap
Athlon64 (3000+ for example), those aren't so expensive anymore as they
where and motherboard from Asus is britty good partner for it.

Then you should buy for it a 512mt ddr memory chip. and another same
kind of if you want it to be 1gt summed up. i recommend buying 400mhz
chips since they are some what faster that 333 and about same price.

For display accelerator I have to say that decion is up to you. If I
where you I would buy nVidia FX 5700 golden samle from Gainward. It can
be safely Overclocked to Ultra model. However if you still have some
more money for use. Then you should buy 6800GT or 6600ultra from nvidia.
These cards are the fastest 3d-cards on earth. ATi X700 and X800 aren't
as fast as 6800 series or 6600 series. Of course if you put ATi card to
extreme overclocking system where it is sinked to oxygen or similar
stuff and overclockec to highest possible it may be faster. But if you
don't have much money. I recommend buying ATi R9800Pro, XT or similar.
R9700 is waste of money since nVidia FX5700Ultra is just fast or little
bit faster.

And one more thing. Who cares if ATi is 1% faster than nVidia if games
like Thief and Doom3 won't run in ATi card. With nVidia every game
works. And those work a fast. You can find a list games not working at
all on ATi card from ATi's web site.

So you should buy nVidia anyway. If you're not that overclocker/hardware
people and you just want to play games.

I tooked a look for that list and with newest ATi catalyst drivers you
cannot play Call of Duty, Joint Operation Typhoon Rising, Rainbow six3:
Athena Sword, Richard Burns Rally and Star Wars: Knights of the Old
Republic or if they work you will have performace or some other kind of
problems.

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/Catalyst_410_release_notes.html#175658



So ATi people there. I'd like to know where do you use your card? Is it
some kind of toilet paper? :)

And plus. If you want to try out Linux. nvidia card driver install is
similar to windows driver install.(You run it and driver installer will
do rest.)

But in ATi you have to patch your linux-kernel,config it, recompile it,
and force install some RPMS (very bad thing), some more config, and pray
it will work.

Here is just some points why to buy nVidia instead of cheap ATi card.

As a sound card I'd like to recommend Creative SoundBlaster Live! 5.1,
because it is cheap and working sollution.~30€ However, if you want
better sound and newer card, then go and buy a SoundBlaster Audigy2. Do
not buy Audigy1 however. It isn't very good since you can get Audigy2 in
same price and with it more capabilities. Like THX sound. it is some
about 100€.

And plus, Both cards are native supported by Linux. Of course other
cards are to, but these are the best sollution for quality of sound.

As a case for this new computer I'd recommend Super-Flover, Antec or
CoolerMaster aluminium case. And depending on your needs 350w or 400w
power. just take a look that +12V source is at least 15A and that it is
stable.

If someone wants to critizise my statement then I don't mind, but this
is what I think to be good machine today with smart use of money.


-Antti-

Ps. My machine is:
Amd Athlon64 3500+ 939Socket,
Asus A8V Deluxe + WLAN,
512Mb DDR 400MHz,
nVidia FX5700Ultra,

And belive it or not this machine can run Doom3 at stable ~40-50FPS in
Ultra settings under linux. I have little Overclocked it.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life.counterstrike (More info?)

i would like to know, in some game, i can't set the brightness. a have a
radeon 9600. can you help.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life.counterstrike (More info?)

"Jacques Viau" <j.viau@rocler.com> wrote in message
news:HJfkd.39258$ak3.1468187@wagner.videotron.net...
>i would like to know, in some game, i can't set the brightness. a
>have a
> radeon 9600. can you help.

Set it where? If in the game itself then some games don't have that
option. If in the Catalyst/Omega driver panel then some games will
override this. If on the front of your monitor then that is a monitor
issue.
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life.counterstrike (More info?)

My budget is probably something under £60.

That might sound small, but I am running an 1 GHz processor so
anything too good would be wasted.

I'm really looking for something that has enough performance to allow
me to play HalfLife2 with my current set up. The current card is just
not upto it.

Later next year, I will be looking to replace the entire system, but
for now I just want to upgrade without splashing out too much.

Any ideas?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Do you have problems with formatting your Word documents?
Try HealthChecK.
Full software on 25 day free trial and the chance to win your own free copy.
http://www.kutchka.com/products/producthealthcheck.asp
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life.counterstrike (More info?)

"Mike Seddon" <mike.sd@btinternt.com> wrote in message
news:419d135a.8529174@news.btinternet.com...
> My budget is probably something under £60.
>
> That might sound small, but I am running an 1 GHz processor so
> anything too good would be wasted.
>
> I'm really looking for something that has enough performance to
> allow
> me to play HalfLife2 with my current set up. The current card is
> just
> not upto it.
>
> Later next year, I will be looking to replace the entire system, but
> for now I just want to upgrade without splashing out too much.
>
> Any ideas?

With a 1 gig CPU there is no chance of Half-Life 2. Looking at my
Half-Life 2 box it says 1.2 Ghz absolute minimum and even if you got a
radeon 9800 series off ebay cheap that CPU would hold it back so much
that even if HL2 worked you would get too few FPS for it to be
playable....... sorry.
 
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